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NHL Picks

Ducks Take Oilers for a Swim at "The Pond", Anaheim -180 the NHL Pick

We have been hot as of late and look to continue our winning ways with our NHL Picks. One way to do that is to make a selection in the Edmonton Oilers vs.Anaheim Ducks game.

Come Out and See the Show!
Face-off is set for tonight at 10:00 p.m. EST at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. If you're a tourist, you can take an early trip to Disneyland and then go watch two really bad teams.

At the moment, the Ducks couldn't score a goal to save their lives as they rank 30th in the NHL at a mere 1.6 goals per contest. This could be an opportunity for Corey Perry and company to get their offense on track as the Oilers defense is as bad as the Ducks offense. Edmonton is allowing over 3 goals per game.

Being that Anaheim is historically a winning hockey club, odds makers are giving them the benefit of the doubt as they're a -183 betting favorite and the total is 5 goals. I've faded the Ducks before and made the betting public some coin, but am a bit hesitant in fading Anaheim in this matchup as the Oilers have absolutely no momentum coming into this game.

Starting Goalies
Even though this is the later matchup in a slow night of just 2 games, there's no confirmation on the starting goalies as of yet. Keep an eye on "who will be in net?" as this can have a major impact on the game. You can do this by just googling the keywords "NHL starting goalies". For now, we're to assume that this will be a Cam Talbot vs. Frederik Andersen and both of these goalies can stop an opposing offense in their tracks.

I know I should be concerned with Talbot. He's only 3-7 with a 3.00 GAA and less than a .900 SV%. That said, he's on a weak team that get's pressed as most of the time, the Oilers are on the defense and as I recall, Talbot had one of the best runs that I've seen in a long time when he was a member of the Rangers. If Edmonton can apply some offensive pressure, Talbot will be much more effective and that will be the key to the game as we know that Frederik Andersen is one of the better goalies in the NHL.

Taylor Hall
Aside from leading the Oilers in assists with 10, this is a player that will pepper the opposing goalie with shots, but hasn't been accurate. That said, the aggression is much needed in this game and Hall has been able to pot 6 goals on his team leading 61 shots on goal. Where shots on goal are concerned, Nail Yakupov has 37 and Edmonton's other two goal scorers in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (5 goals, 7 assists) and Connor McDavid (5 goals, assists) barely have half the amount of SOG that Hall possesses. Edmonton needs to be aggressive and need a good effort out of Cam Talbot despite the Ducks offensive woes.

Not the Same Ducks
As I predicted, Arizona would take care of Anaheim and they did in Anaheim's most recent game, a 4-3 OT loss. The Ducks rank 30th in the NHL in goals at 1.6 and are equally as bad on the power play. That said, their defense is exceptional and they really only need to scratch out a couple of goals in this game and they should be victorious.

Scaratching out a couple of goals is normally easy, but not when your leading goal scorer has just 3 goals on the season and the Ducks two top players have underperformed.

I will give Ryan Getlaf a pass as he missed some time and has 3 assists in his last 3 games, but Corey Perry needs to step it up. He leads the Ducks in points with 2 goals and 6 assists, but is a -5 in the plus/minus ratio department and that's a very bad sign for this scrapper. Look for the Ducks to play well tonight as the situation is right. They face a struggling goalie in Talbot and the Oilers defense leaves a lot to be desired. Make Anaheim your NHL pick tonight.